The last two decades have seen the development and commercialization of reactive, self-propagating multilayer foils as local heat sources for joining materials. When used in conjunction with solder or braze, these foils can join components together without heating either component significantly, as only the region near the interface is heated. This is useful for joining dissimilar materials, which may have very different melting temperatures and coefficients of thermal expansion. However, the standard practice of pre-wetting components with solder or coating them with inert metal layers such as Au or Ag adds cost, slows dissemination of the technology, and limits bond strength. Accordingly, there is a need for strong bonds that can be formed without pre-wetting or metallizing the components to be bonded.